- From: jonathan chetwynd <jc@signbrowser.org.uk>
- Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2000 09:53:24 -0000
- To: "Chuck Hitchcock" <chitchcock@cast.org>, "Anne Pemberton" <apembert@crosslink.net>, "Bailey, Bruce" <Bruce_Bailey@ed.gov>, "w3c" <w3c-wai-gl@w3.org>, "William Loughborough" <love26@gorge.net>
- Cc: "Kynn Bartlett" <kynn@idyllmtn.com>
Sorry William, and thanks Kynn, WAI desperately needs to shelve a few programmers, and buy in artists. The problem I believe is finding a house style. I have suggested (and been rudely rebuffed) that wai institute a world-wide competition to design and make, an interactive puff to graphically demonstrate wai work. This could involve film, animation, streaming, text, links, and accessibility. This is amazing as no one is committed to accepting entries. Companies involved would learn about the meaning of accessibility. Are we certain there would be no interest, a large web design corporation I had a meeting with expressed a very positive interest in accessibility. It's not just the suitability, its setting an example. if government is to make itself accessible, its important to indicate the way that graphics might be used. e.g. photographs to illustrate the case studies being written up at eowg, "disabled use of the web". All sighted readers benefit from being able to identify. (TV has transformed politics, Stephen hawking is a popular myth because we have 'all' seen him.) If we wish to advocate the translation across media, it is very important that we make the attempt ourselves. Does the alt tag "Mona Lisa" represent the painting? many artists choose not to name their work. Its a strange ethos that says that everything translates to text, and text has no need of other media. Why then are we not all authors including dramatists, musicians... wai needs to include examples of good practice, otherwise how else do others recognise their usage. By seeing one of my clients using http://www.peepo.com to find the music he or she wants to listen to, you immediately realise the validity of this approach. Once I have speech to text software, that works reasonably well, and is probably 'free' you'll be hearing from my clients as well, though you may not realise their speech impediments. They actually benefit from the reward of a graphical stimulation, that tells them that they have spelt a word right. jonathan chetwynd jc@signbrowser.org.uk IT teacher (learning difficulty) & accessibility consultant
Received on Tuesday, 28 November 2000 05:19:47 UTC